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Al Gore’s ballot-by-ballot fight for the White House was given new life Tuesday night, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the “will of the people” demanded that manual recounts be added in the state’s election totals. Their work approved, weary election officials plowed through ballots into the night.

“An accurate vote count is one of the essential foundations of our democracy,” the seven justices said.

The unanimous decision came as election workers in three counties continued their counting of 1.5 million ballots, now facing a Sunday deadline to complete their task.

“Twenty five years ago this court commented that the will of the people, not the hyper-technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle in elections,” read the court ruling.

Bush holds a 930-vote lead in the official, but uncertified vote tallies from Election Day, with overseas absentee ballots included. Gore has slowly been eating into that lead in recent days as recounts have proceeded at his urging in three Democratic counties.

“I think we’ll be able to meet the deadline,” said Circuit Judge Charles Burton, head of the Palm Beach elections board. Televisions in the West Palm Beach counting room showed the Supreme Court spokesman releasing the decision, but the audio was turned off. Workers continued to hand count the ballots.

It was unclear whether the ruling set standards for country election officials to determine the validity of ballots – a key issue as Gore scrambles for each and every vote. Democrats welcomed the decision, but privately worried that Republicans would slow down the recount process to make it difficult for Gore to overtake Bush before the deadline.

“We view tonight ruling in the Florida Supreme Court as a victory for the people,” said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. “The hand counts will go forward and the will of the people will be reflected accurately and completely.”

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III was expected to respond for Bush, who was in Texas when the ruling was handed down. Gore was at his residence in Washington and planned a statement.

In advance of the ruling, Republican lawyers prepared to take an emergency appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court in case the Florida court rules against them.

Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican and Bush ally, who had refused to accept the hand counts, was not available for comment.

Clay Roberts, Republican-appointed director of state Division of Elections and a member of the state canvassing board, said, “Certainly we will follow the orders of the Florida Supreme Court. Of course the Secretary of State is going to abide by the ruling on the highest court of the state.

“I haven’t read their ruling so I don’t know whether to be disappointed in it or not. It’s really not our concern whether it’s a victory for Al Gore or George Bush. The secretary of state was presented with a statute that had some conflict and she interpreted it to the best of her ability according to the law,” he said.

Gore had picked up 266 votes in recounts by late Tuesday, which if approved by the courts and added to official state totals would shave Bush’s lead to 664 votes out of 6 million cast. Bush has held his own in at least one of the counties, raising fears among Democrats that they will not overtake the Texas governor unless every possible ballot is counted.

Democrats want three county canvassing boards to count hundreds of punch-card ballots with no holes poked out for the presidential race, giving Gore or Bush a vote when an indentation is found next to their name. With the Texas Republican clinging to a 930-vote lead, the vice president’s advisers said they almost certainly can’t win Florida and the White House unless county officials discern the intent of voters whose ballots were not properly punched.

In Broward County, where up to 2,000 questionable ballots were set aside for review later, officials asked the Supreme Court to set a uniform standard for validating ballots. “It is imperative that it be resolved immediately,” the brief said.

Both sides acknowledged Tuesday that Gore stands to pick up hundreds of votes — perhaps as many as 1,500 with the most liberal approval standards. The three counties conducting recounts are predominantly Democratic, and voters from Gore’s party historically cast more faulty ballots than their GOP counterparts.

Republicans want the manual recounts stopped and, if not, they fear a broad standard for reviewing the ballots will tilt the race to Gore. Bush’s team has an ace in the hole: Hundreds of absentee ballots from military outposts that were rejected on technicalities.

A senior Bush adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in advance of the ruling that Republicans were likely to sue to reinstate rejected absentee ballots from military outposts if the Supreme Court allows recounts to go forward. Democrats waged a county-by-county campaign to toss out the absentee votes, a majority of which were Republican, but rolled back on their objections to the military ballots after coming under heavy criticism.

In recounting rooms across the southeast coast of Florida, the procedure varied little Tuesday: Gore ballots went in one pile; Bush ballots in another; questionable ballots, including some with dimples, in yet a third.

Officials on both sides said that absent a court ruling, the questionable ballots may yet settle the nation’s presidential election — hundreds of cardboard punchcards, puzzled over by officials on three county canvassing boards.

While awaiting word on the fate of their recounts, local officials have set their own often-shifting standards.

In the state’s largest county, Miami-Dade, election officials are following the guidance of Gore’s allies and assigning votes whenever a voter’s intent could be determined by an indentation on the ballot. With a small fraction of the precincts counted, both sides said Gore was on pace to pick up about 500 votes by the time counting ends, about Dec. 1.

A circuit judge rejected GOP requests to set standards in Miami-Dade for ballot review and search garbage cans for chads — scraps of paper that are dislodged when a ballot is punched. “I’m not going to manage the minutiae of each ballot,” Circuit Judge David Tobin said.

Tempers flared in the vote-counting rooms. Republican observer Grant Lally asked to have Ivy Korman, the administrator of the elections department, removed from the counting room.

“I have a one-hour lunch break. That was it,” Korman replied. “I ignored him and read my newspaper.”

Up the coast in Broward County, all ballots with dimpled chads or just one corner of the chad detached are set aside to be reviewed by the canvassing board after all the other ballots are counted.

Officials finished counting ballots that were not in dispute Tuesday night, and Gore had gained 118 votes on Bush. Senior Republicans and Democrats alike said Gore could net another 500 or so votes in Broward County alone if the dimpled ballots are allowed.

Circuit Judge Robert Rosenberg, a Republican with Democratic ties, was named to the three-person county elections board to replace Jane Carroll, who abruptly quit Monday.

Further up the coast, Palm Beach County is the key to Gore’s recount drive. The vice president had picked up only a handful of votes with one-fifth of the precincts counted, not nearly enough to overtake Bush, according to senior Democrats. Officials there are not considering any ballots with dimpled chads or with chads detached at one corer.

Party lawyer Dennis Newman, overseeing the Palm Beach recount for Gore, said there were 557 “dimpled” ballots for Gore and 260 for Bush that hadn’t been counted as officials completed work on 176 of the counties 531 precincts. Those figures were not disputed by senior GOP officials.

Democratic sources say they believe there may be hundreds more dimpled ballots in Palm Beach County once all the votes are reviewed, and Bush’s team doesn’t disagree. Democrats are asking a local court to force the canvassing board to apply a broader standard for accepting votes.

The Associated Press

Al Gore’s ballot-by-ballot fight for the White House was given new life Tuesday night, when the Florida Supreme Court ruled that the “will of the people” demanded that manual recounts be added in the state’s election totals. Their work approved, weary election officials plowed through ballots into the night.

“An accurate vote count is one of the essential foundations of our democracy,” the seven justices said.

The unanimous decision came as election workers in three counties continued their counting of 1.5 million ballots, now facing a Sunday deadline to complete their task.

“Twenty five years ago this court commented that the will of the people, not the hyper-technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle in elections,” read the court ruling.

Bush holds a 930-vote lead in the official, but uncertified vote tallies from Election Day, with overseas absentee ballots included. Gore has slowly been eating into that lead in recent days as recounts have proceeded at his urging in three Democratic counties.

“I think we’ll be able to meet the deadline,” said Circuit Judge Charles Burton, head of the Palm Beach elections board. Televisions in the West Palm Beach counting room showed the Supreme Court spokesman releasing the decision, but the audio was turned off. Workers continued to hand count the ballots.

It was unclear whether the ruling set standards for country election officials to determine the validity of ballots – a key issue as Gore scrambles for each and every vote. Democrats welcomed the decision, but privately worried that Republicans would slow down the recount process to make it difficult for Gore to overtake Bush before the deadline.

“We view tonight ruling in the Florida Supreme Court as a victory for the people,” said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. “The hand counts will go forward and the will of the people will be reflected accurately and completely.”

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III was expected to respond for Bush, who was in Texas when the ruling was handed down. Gore was at his residence in Washington and planned a statement.

In advance of the ruling, Republican lawyers prepared to take an emergency appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court in case the Florida court rules against them.

Secretary of State Katherine Harris, a Republican and Bush ally, who had refused to accept the hand counts, was not available for comment.

Clay Roberts, Republican-appointed director of state Division of Elections and a member of the state canvassing board, said, “Certainly we will follow the orders of the Florida Supreme Court. Of course the Secretary of State is going to abide by the ruling on the highest court of the state.

“I haven’t read their ruling so I don’t know whether to be disappointed in it or not. It’s really not our concern whether it’s a victory for Al Gore or George Bush. The secretary of state was presented with a statute that had some conflict and she interpreted it to the best of her ability according to the law,” he said.

Gore had picked up 266 votes in recounts by late Tuesday, which if approved by the courts and added to official state totals would shave Bush’s lead to 664 votes out of 6 million cast. Bush has held his own in at least one of the counties, raising fears among Democrats that they will not overtake the Texas governor unless every possible ballot is counted.

Democrats want three county canvassing boards to count hundreds of punch-card ballots with no holes poked out for the presidential race, giving Gore or Bush a vote when an indentation is found next to their name. With the Texas Republican clinging to a 930-vote lead, the vice president’s advisers said they almost certainly can’t win Florida and the White House unless county officials discern the intent of voters whose ballots were not properly punched.

In Broward County, where up to 2,000 questionable ballots were set aside for review later, officials asked the Supreme Court to set a uniform standard for validating ballots. “It is imperative that it be resolved immediately,” the brief said.

Both sides acknowledged Tuesday that Gore stands to pick up hundreds of votes — perhaps as many as 1,500 with the most liberal approval standards. The three counties conducting recounts are predominantly Democratic, and voters from Gore’s party historically cast more faulty ballots than their GOP counterparts.

Republicans want the manual recounts stopped and, if not, they fear a broad standard for reviewing the ballots will tilt the race to Gore. Bush’s team has an ace in the hole: Hundreds of absentee ballots from military outposts that were rejected on technicalities.

A senior Bush adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said in advance of the ruling that Republicans were likely to sue to reinstate rejected absentee ballots from military outposts if the Supreme Court allows recounts to go forward. Democrats waged a county-by-county campaign to toss out the absentee votes, a majority of which were Republican, but rolled back on their objections to the military ballots after coming under heavy criticism.

In recounting rooms across the southeast coast of Florida, the procedure varied little Tuesday: Gore ballots went in one pile; Bush ballots in another; questionable ballots, including some with dimples, in yet a third.

Officials on both sides said that absent a court ruling, the questionable ballots may yet settle the nation’s presidential election — hundreds of cardboard punchcards, puzzled over by officials on three county canvassing boards.

While awaiting word on the fate of their recounts, local officials have set their own often-shifting standards.

In the state’s largest county, Miami-Dade, election officials are following the guidance of Gore’s allies and assigning votes whenever a voter’s intent could be determined by an indentation on the ballot. With a small fraction of the precincts counted, both sides said Gore was on pace to pick up about 500 votes by the time counting ends, about Dec. 1.

A circuit judge rejected GOP requests to set standards in Miami-Dade for ballot review and search garbage cans for chads — scraps of paper that are dislodged when a ballot is punched. “I’m not going to manage the minutiae of each ballot,” Circuit Judge David Tobin said.

Tempers flared in the vote-counting rooms. Republican observer Grant Lally asked to have Ivy Korman, the administrator of the elections department, removed from the counting room.

“I have a one-hour lunch break. That was it,” Korman replied. “I ignored him and read my newspaper.”

Up the coast in Broward County, all ballots with dimpled chads or just one corner of the chad detached are set aside to be reviewed by the canvassing board after all the other ballots are counted.

Officials finished counting ballots that were not in dispute Tuesday night, and Gore had gained 118 votes on Bush. Senior Republicans and Democrats alike said Gore could net another 500 or so votes in Broward County alone if the dimpled ballots are allowed.

Circuit Judge Robert Rosenberg, a Republican with Democratic ties, was named to the three-person county elections board to replace Jane Carroll, who abruptly quit Monday.

Further up the coast, Palm Beach County is the key to Gore’s recount drive. The vice president had picked up only a handful of votes with one-fifth of the precincts counted, not nearly enough to overtake Bush, according to senior Democrats. Officials there are not considering any ballots with dimpled chads or with chads detached at one corer.

Party lawyer Dennis Newman, overseeing the Palm Beach recount for Gore, said there were 557 “dimpled” ballots for Gore and 260 for Bush that hadn’t been counted as officials completed work on 176 of the counties 531 precincts. Those figures were not disputed by senior GOP officials.

Democratic sources say they believe there may be hundreds more dimpled ballots in Palm Beach County once all the votes are reviewed, and Bush’s team doesn’t disagree. Democrats are asking a local court to force the canvassing board to apply a broader standard for accepting votes.

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AT A GLANCE

COUNTING

• Miami-Dade County: With 135 of 614 precincts recounted through Tuesday, Al Gore had gained 157 votes over last week’s official totals.

• Broward County: With all the 609 precincts recounted plus more than 11,700 absentee ballots, Gore had gained 106 votes. About 38,000 absentee ballots and up to 2,000 disputed ballots remain to be reviewed.

• Palm Beach County: With 103 of 531 precincts recounted by hand, Gore had gained three votes. The county did not release results from another 384 already counted. On Tuesday alone, 1,979 ballots were set aside as questionable.

COURTS

• Al Gore’s presidential hopes stay alive. The Florida Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the manual recounts in three counties can continue through Sunday or Monday. The court said that, in this disputed election, the most important issue is giving people a chance to vote. Gore now needs to find 930 votes in the recounts to wipe out the lead held by Republican George W. Bush to win Florida and the presidency.

UPCOMING

• A hearing is set for Wednesday in Palm Beach County on a Democratic motion to force the canvassing board to consider dimpled chads.